Deal signed to keep Henry Coe State Park open

State Parks officials today signed an agreement to use matching funds to ensure Henry Coe State Park near Gilroy will stay open for two years.

The agreement is the first signed by the California Department of Parks and Recreation under the terms of AB 1478. The new state law, adopted in September in the wake of a scandal in the department, allocates $10 million for matching grants to keep state parks open. The money comes from the $54 million in surplus funds that former parks headquarters officials were found in July to have hidden for years, even as state budget cuts led to park closures.

Henry Coe, at more than 87,000 acres of mountain peaks and oak-studded wilderness, is the largest state park in Northern California and the second-largest in the state.

State parks signed the agreement with the Coe Park Preservation Fund, a local group that donated $279,000, enough to keep the park open for one year. The group turned that money over to the department earlier this year. Then, when scandal enveloped the department, some of the group's board members said they wanted the money refunded.

Now, state parks will match the $279,000 donation from the surplus funds to ensure the park stays open through 2014. In the agreement, the department also commits to find additional money to keep the park open through 2016.

"This is a very big deal in my mind," said Anthony L. Jackson, the new state parks director appointed in November. "People who love the parks are giving us, in new management, an opportunity to win their trust."

Preservation fund officials said that, before the park scandal emerged earlier this year, they had donor commitments to provide $1 million to assist the park. Most of the promised donations evaporated, however, when it was revealed that the parks department had hidden away so much revenue.

The funding agreement ensures that state parks employees will remain on the job to keep Henry Coe open for the public.

"The park's long-term future is not being addressed here," said Ron Fischler, a board member of the fund. "But at least for the near term, we feel confident the park will be protected."

Consider it a fiscal olive branch being extended by the state following the discovery of hidden millions for parks last summer: Henry W. Coe State Park boosters are getting matching operating funds worth $279,000 per a law passed in September.

That law requires that $10 million of $54 million in park funds that went unreported to the state Department of Finance be used to match money collected via donations that were received when 70 parks were thought to be on the chopping block to save $22 million.

The discovery made groups that had collected money feel betrayed -- many began rumbling that they wanted a refund, and it made it nigh impossible for park boosters to count on any continued donations.

"All of a sudden our donors and funders and pledges that we had dried up," said Ann Briggs of the Coe Park Preservation Fund, which had produced the $279,000 aimed at saving the 87,000-acre park east of Morgan Hill that is the second-largest in the state system.

By doubling the war chest, Coe can stay staffed through June 30, 2014, and an additional agreement says the state will keep it open for the two following years, although with levels of service dependent on available funding.

State Parks and Recreation Director Anthony Jackson, a former U.S. Marine major general who was appointed to his current post by the governor last month, said the agreement signed Wednesday is just the start.

"I feel that one of the first things I got to do for the people of California is to restore their faith and trust in state parks," Jackson said. "It was hurtful to a lot of the people in associations and foundations that benefit parks, and it was hurtful to 99 percent of the people who work in state parks, and a damaging blow to everybody's morale who loves the state parks."

Aaron Robertson, deputy parks director, said the money demonstrates to funding partners that the state "has skin in the game."

He said a number of audits are currently under way to find out how the $54 million went missing in the first place.

"We see this certainly as a very unfortunate circumstance that happened, but we also see it as a turning point to restore people's trust," he said.

Contact Eric Kurhi at 408-920-5852. Follow him at Twitter.com/mercurynews.com.

Last edited by Skyline35; 12-19-2012 at 08:33 PM.
Reason: Adding another article

Sort of good news...

...the AB 1478 that allocated the $20M in "lost" funds suggested that Coe would be kept open until 2016 regardless (2 years of no closures; then the 1 year from CPPF funding; then 1 year of matching funds from CPS = 4 years)

I hear that in regards to Coe the CPS wanted to renege on the "no closures for 2 years" and only focus on the 1 year of matching funds. There was quite a fight "behind the scenes"; I'm surprised that the "...2 years" have become a footnote.

Has the Anthony L. Jackson appointment change anything? From these press releases we're not off to a good start.

The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not represent any policy of the CA Dept. of Parks & Rec.